Movie Review: The Corpse of Anna Fritz

As a life-long fan, I’m pretty desensitized to most of the elements that go into contemporary horror films. I’m also rarely offended, unless a movie insults my intelligence. The Corpse of Anna Fritz is one of those movies that left a bad taste in my mouth and not for the reasons you might think, considering the content.

The story: Anna Fritz, a famous actress, is found dead. Due to her enormous popularity, the location of where her body has been taken is being kept a secret. A young orderly named Pau (Albert Carbó) works in the morgue where her corpse currently lies. Pau takes a picture of her and sends it to his friends, Ivan and Javi (Cristian Valencia and Bernat Saumell), who show up at the hospital on their way to a party. Ivan talks Pau into letting them in to see Anna’s body. Pau sneaks them into the morgue and Ivan quickly decides he will be the last man to bed Anna Fritz. Pau also takes part, but before he finishes, Anna wakes up and we’ve gone from necrophilia to rape.

The boys now have to decide if they’re willing to face rape charges by alerting her revival or kill her in order to keep their dirty secret. After all, the world already thinks she dead so who would be the wiser? What ensues is a battle of wills and a fight for survival for everyone involved.

This isn’t a movie you can just sit back and enjoy or have fun with. It’s a film about bullying, morals, murder, rape, and necrophilia so the subject matter is heavy. Taking all of these things into account, if you’re an intelligent individual, you can only analyze and that’s when the anger builds.

We don’t know how Anna died, but because of the celebrity obsessed culture we live in, we can be sure when a famous person dies under suspicious or unknown circumstances, an autopsy is going to happen and it’s going to happen quickly. The body isn’t going to sit in a morgue. However, on the off chance there is a wait period, the body is going to be refrigerated. It isn’t going to just lay on a slab with a sheet over it. When Anna is revived, she’s not a zombie. She is completely awake and aware of what is happening to her, although she can’t move. There is nothing logical or remotely believable about this scenario.

Of the three guys, Ivan is the alpha. He’s also clearly a sociopath. Javi does not partake in any of the mistreatment of poor Anna. In fact, he does everything he can to get her out of the situation, but standing up to Ivan is his undoing. Pau is just a mess. He admits to having sex with dead girls before so he’s got a few issues to start. He knows that killing Anna is wrong, but he’s afraid to stand up to Ivan and he’s also afraid of what his parents will think when they learn what a deviant he is so he goes along with Ivan’s plan. Even though Pau struggles with the decision, his inability to do what’s right makes him reprehensible.

It’s isn’t all bad, however. Alba Ribas, who stars as Anna, is a standout. She’s immobile during the majority of the film and does a fantastic job of acting through her eyes and her speech. There are also a few tension filled moments when Anna is attempting an escape that are well done. Unfortunately, what works in the film cannot surpass what doesn’t. The illogical premise is something I just could not get past and it destroyed any chance to see it for the thriller it’s attempting to be.

The Corpse of Anna Fritz is available on DVD 8th of March and exclusively at flixfling.com